Expeditions: Viking was originally supposed to come out this month, but it looks after the release of the beta in December, the Logic Artists realized they still had more to do. The delay isn't official yet, but yesterday's newsletter all but spells it out. The good news is that there's going to be another beta before launch, so those of you who weren't subscribed to the newsletter for the last one have another chance to get in:

To start this off, if you’re new to the newsletter and were too late to join the previous Beta, fret not! We plan to host one more closed Beta before launch so stay tuned to the newsletter to find out more when the time comes!

A huge thanks for all of you Beta Testers who participated in the last Beta session. It was really exciting to get your comments, questions, and feedback, and we want to especially thank you for all the lovely bug reports.

There were nearly 200 bugs and issues that made it through initial reporting and into our system. More than 120 of these were resolved during the Beta, and we published 6 updated builds over the duration of the Beta with improvements abound.

This was such a great opportunity for us to hear back from you with feedback on user experiences and your comments and suggestions were paramount. Thank you again so much!​

The newsletter also offers a look at some of Viking's combat abilities. In this case, the abilities granted by specializing in the use of the mighty Dane Axe:

It’s finally here! Now you can crowd control and cleave your way to bloody victory using the devastating two-handed Dane Axe. But “what will I do in the shield wall without my shield?” you ask. Well, disrupt and destroy the enemy, my sword-and-boarding friend! As with most weapon types, investing skill points to level the Dane Axe skill will reward players with a total of 3 unique combat abilities:

Reckless Strike - at Rank 1 Reckless Strike is an attack action that currently gives the axe wielder a 25% bonus to damage on their attack but applies the status effect “Unbalanced” (we could have called it “Overpowered” *giggle*) which prevents the character from moving until the end of the next turn. Big Mess, No Fuss.

Pull- at Rank 3 players will unlock Pull. Pull is a crowd control ability that allows players to hook an enemy who is two hexes away by the neck and pull them into melee range. This is great for dragging enemies into unpleasant situations you’ve set up for them (like the ice patch in the gif), and while it won’t trigger attacks of opportunity, it’s great for forcing enemies into traps and the like.

Swipe - at Rank 5, Swipe is an attack action where the player will strike an enemy and any characters standing on either side of the target. Swipe cannot damage shields if blocked, however, and deals no armor-piercing damage. We were thinking of calling it Cleavey McCleaversen but it was too many characters.
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Expeditions: Viking will be appearing at GDC, the PC Gamer Weekender and PAX East in the next couple of months, so that may put a lower bound on its new release date. Future newsletters will have more details, plus a "special release week gift" for subscribers, so I suggest you sign up.